This disclosure relates generally to the field of mobile payment transaction systems, and more specifically to network-based systems and methods for using transaction data transmissions to locate mobile merchants.
Mobile merchants are often vehicle-based and may relocate their vehicle frequently. For example, a mobile merchant operating a food truck may drive the food truck to different locations in a city. Consumers buy goods or services from the mobile merchant when the mobile merchant is in their vicinity. However, consumers of goods and services are unable to easily determine when the mobile merchant will be in their vicinity again in the future. Consumers may query the mobile merchant for location information (e.g., through a phone number or a website). However, this becomes cumbersome, because it requires periodic querying with no guarantee of success and the mobile merchant must constantly store, update, and transmit location information. Querying the merchant current locations becomes even more tedious when a consumer wishes to locate several different merchants. Locating mobile merchants that do not broadcast location information may be impossible. Finally, a consumer cannot query a mobile merchant that the consumer is not aware of, which is a significant problem when mobile merchants that may be of interest to the consumer are in the consumer's vicinity and the consumer is unaware of it.
At least some known ways of providing a mobile merchant's location involve the mobile merchant using a separate service to provide their location to consumers. Such methods are limited in that consumers have difficulty locating particular mobile merchants unless they subscribe to the specific location service. Moreover, these known systems are limited because, in many cases, the mobile merchant provides its location and then relocates, and the provided location is inaccurate until the mobile merchant takes time away from its business to provide an update to the service provider. In the interim, consumers receive inaccurate information, limiting the utility of these known location methods.